is perhaps characteristic of autumn gardens all the world over. To my 

 regret time did not permit of my making extensive inquiries into the agri- 

 cultural methods of this most interesting strip of country. 



GRANADA. 



On October 25th we left Malaga for Granada, and soon found ourselves 

 back again in the region of olive trees. We traverse some extensive and 

 very well kept groves belonging to the Duke of Wellington, a gift from the 

 Spanish nation to his illustrious ancestor of Peninsula war fame. As one 

 approaches Granada one realises how much more thorough are general cultural 

 operations here than anywhere else in Spain. The valley, or Vega de Granada, 

 is very extensively irrigated and given up almost entirely to the cultivation 

 of sugar-beet ; and with very good reason, if I was correctly informed, since 

 at present rates sugar-beet growing is said to return 10 per cent, on invested 

 capital. The extent to which within recent years this crop has come to 

 monopolise the district may be gauged by the fact that there are now 16 large 

 sugar-beet factories in full working order in the Vega. I had occasion to 

 look over one of these factories at a time, however, when no work was being 

 done. This factory appeared to me to be well equipped on modern lines and 

 very well kept. Its yearly output was said to be represented by 75,000 bags 

 of sugar of 1321bs. each. 



I was curious to learn what was done in this district with sugar-beet residues. 

 In Northern France these residues were generally fed in the moist state to 

 steers put up for fattening ; special forms of disease have, however, I believe 

 been traced to this method of using beet pulp. In this Spanish factory, 

 after extraction of the sugar, the pulp is first partly dried by pressure and 

 then transferred to specially-constructed kilns in which the drying process 

 is completed with hot air. The dried pulp is then put in bags, going 751bs. 

 to 771bs. each and sold as fodder to be fed either to horses, cattle, or sheep. 

 The usual price realised is said to be about 3 15s. 6d. a ton. 



I have already had occasion to point out that in this district sugar-beet 

 growing is dependent wholly on irrigation ; this, of course, tends to make 

 of it a somewhat expensive crop, involving the use of much hand labor. The 

 latter, however, is extremely cheap, being remunerated, I was assured, at 

 the miserable rate of Is. 6d. a day. As yet no attempt appears to have been 

 made to grow sugar-beet in rotation with some other type of crop suited to 

 local conditions. The common practice appears to be to go on raising sugar- 

 beet year after year on the same plot of land, helping the crop along by occa- 

 sional dressings of stable manure and guano. In this connection I suppose 

 we should not forget that in this district the sugar beet industry is a com- 

 paratively recent one, and that for Spain it has hitherto proved an unusually 

 profitable one ; hence we may readily assume that in this somewhat improvi- 

 dent country every landowner is intent on making hay while the sun shines 



